By Healthcare Facilities Today

It's no secret that hospitals never close due to inclement weather. They don't have the same luxury as schools or shopping malls.

The key to keeping medical centers open and functioning is a combination of planning, cooperation and continual communication, according to an blog on the Philadelphia Business Journal's website.

When a major storm is forecast, hospitals will provide accommodations and sleeping arrangements for staff to “shelter in place,” said Mark Ross, regional manager, emergency preparedness for the Hospital and HealthSystem Association of Pennsylvania/Pennsylvania Department of Health emergency preparedness partnership, in the article.

Staying in the hospital ahead of a storm means employees don’t have to drive when road conditions are dangerous, the blog said. If public transportation is halted, hospitals set up transportation routes and will arrange for people with four-wheel drive vehicles to go out and get staff members and bring them to work.

All hospitals have back-up generators, which have come in handy this winter. “We had at one point six to eight hospitals on emergency generators due to power loss,” Ross said, in the article.

In the midst of all the bad weather, Ross and his team were also called on to help coordinate treatment for the dozens of people injured in the recent Pennsylvania Turnpike chain-reaction vehicle crashes.

“We had six different hospitals in the region on alert,” said Ross.

Read the blog.